SHRIVENHAM manager Gareth Davies is confident his side are “starting to understand what it takes to win” in the Hellenic League Premier Division as they aim to make it three in a row against Reading City on Saturday.

Shrivvy travel to Berkshire off the back of five successive home games, recently beating Longlevens 4-1 before coming from 1-0 down to beat Wantage Town 2-1 at Barrington Park.

Davies’ troops are six points clear of the bottom three teams, but the Shrivvy boss is only looking up and has backed his players to keep up their winning streak against a struggling City side this weekend.

The Shrivenham manager has eyed their upcoming run of fixtures over the Christmas period as ones he feels they should win, starting tomorrow.

He said: “I think it’s a bit early to be calling it a relegation six-pointer and there is a bit of a gap between us and the bottom three, but I want to make that gap even bigger.

“The important thing is that we stay on this little run now.

“When you look at the fixtures coming up, there are games that are winnable, and if we pick up three points on Saturday, it would take us right up into mid-table, so we’ve just got to keep working hard.

“I’ve been saying it for a long time – the players are more than good enough to be up there, but we’ve not been doing things correctly, we’ve not been taking chances or we’ve been giving stupid goals away.

“In the last month or so, we’ve corrected some of those errors and we’re starting to reap the rewards from it because we’re doing things properly and minimising mistakes.

“In the last few games, we’ve been very positive about the way we’ve approached things. Last Saturday against Wantage, we went a goal down, but we didn’t fall to pieces.

“We upped our game, went into another gear and that was key. We’re starting to understand what it takes to win games now.”

Reading go into Saturday’s fixture having failed to win in seven league games, but Davies is taking nothing for granted and has warned his players to arrive in the correct frame of mind or their winning run will go up in smoke.

He said: “It’s a big game for both teams. Their form is very much like ours, so it’s massively important that we go into that game and do things properly.

“I say it every week, the players that we’ve got are good, but we just don’t believe in ourselves enough. I believe we can win, but it just depends on what mood our players arrive in.”

Elsewhere, Royal Wootton Bassett Town and Fairford Town also go on the road this weekend with games at Tuffley Rovers and Wantage Town respectively.

In Division One West, Swindon New College travel to Kindlington Development and Malmesbury Victoria are away at Tythertington Rocks.